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Heavy Impact (8/12/15): D-Day

Jeff Jarrett is in charge of tonight’s show, and he brought out the cavalry from his Global Force Wrestling promotion. It’s a supershow of sorts, and Jarrett calls it, the “GFW versus TNA Interpromotional Showdown.” Like last week, he reminds us that Dixie Carter and TNA is in a pinch right now, and he’s just a Good Samaritan who just likes to help out his friends.

His Twitter adversary, Eric Young, shows up. EY claims to be Jeff Jarrett’s God (LOL!), and if Jarrett is the King of the Mountain, then he’s the King of the World (cue “My Heart Will Go On”). Double J had already announced a King of the Mountain match for tonight’s main event, but says that he won’t be in it, as he’s not an active wrestler anymore (I guess that means his Slammiversary King of the Mountain match was his last match ever). Young then attacks Jarrett, but is then attacked by the onslaught of the GFW roster. As expected, the TNA roster runs out to have Young’s back. Hijinks ensued!

Who are you calling a crazy Canuck?!

Anyway, the first TNA versus GFW battle is a Knockout match.

Lei’d Tapa (with Royal Red) vs Awesome Kong

Awesome Kong represents TNA, while Lei’d Tapa (with her husband, Royal Red) is representing GFW. These two are powerhouses seldom seen in women’s wrestling. From the looks of it, these women are of equal size and strength. Clotheslines, body slams, punches, kicks, and forearms make up most of the moves in this match, at least in the first two-thirds – slow in action, but definitely high impact. The highlight of the match was the impressive Samoan Drop by Tapa on the much heavier Kong. Kong retaliates, however, with a huge Chokeslam. The ladies took the fight outside, but didn’t get inside the ring on time; that forced the referee to call a double count-out. Kong gets the final hit, slamming Tapa on the ramp, so I’ll give this battle to Kong.

It was an entertaining match and a great start for the rest of the show. It was a little too short though. But that might be intentional, if they are really booking Tapa and Kong to have a feud. Two powerhouse females in a rivalry of feat and strength? I say go for it!

Tapa is so good… especially with garlic rice and eggs. Yum!

An eyecatch announces that the first three entries in the King of the Mountain match are going to be Eric Young, P.J. Black (formerly known as Justin Gabriel), and Drew Galloway.

Bobby Roode’s Promo

Bobby Roode is in the ring, blasting Jeff Jarrett for not giving him a place in the King of the Mountain match. Roode then calls out Rockstar Spud, and congratulates him for ending Austin Aries’ career. Spud would have none of Roode’s sarcasm, though; Spud calls him a condescending prick, a run-of-the-mill schoolyard bully who takes smaller kids’ lunch money. Roode replies that he will take out his anger and aggression on anyone that he wants to, and there is no one who can stop him. He then proceeds to do exactly that the ultimate underdog, ending with a wicked Crossface on Rockstar Spud.

School bully giving the runt a wedgie

Honestly, someone like Rockstar Spud—who is able to feud with larger and more experienced wrestlers like Kurt Angle, Austin Aries, and now Bobby Roode—shouldn’t be booked as the most underestimated guy in the TNA roster. In my opinion, it’s not believable anymore. Everyone in the locker room should have watched enough of Rockstar Spud’s matches to realize that he’s not to be trifled with. I’m not saying that he shouldn’t be packaged as the underdog in an in-ring match storyline with a bigger guy, but that the bigger guys shouldn’t always be packaged as the dimwitted bullies who misjudge the smaller guy with the skills. Big, muscular gladiators can be intelligent too, you know.

Jessie Godderz vs Bobby Lashley for a slot in King of the Mountain match

I’m not sure why Godderz and Lashley need to vie for a slot in the main event match, when the rest of the entrants were easily given their slots. It’s Lashley dominating Godderz for most of the match. Godderz at one point was able to get a chance at beating up Lashley, but wastes it. Lashley spears Godderz for the pin and the win. I’m glad the match is just a short one, because the other matches needs all the time that the show can give them.

That strength!

We then see Drew Galloway knocked out backstage, in the same way Bully Ray had been laid out last week. Cut to Dixie Carter, Jeff and Karen Jarrett in Dixie’s office: Jeff says that he’s going to figure things out. He probably means both the figuring out the attacks, as well as who’s going to replace Drew in the King of the Mountain match. Meanwhile, Dixie will home in on her maternal instincts and accompany Drew to the hospital, and will entrust the “professional businessman” Jeff Jarrett with the show.

And the mystery deepens. Dun dun dunn…

Matt Hardy’s Promo

Ethan Carter III is in the ring gloating about how he successfully (and cleanly, may I add) won the TNA World Heavyweight Championship last week in a Full Metal Mayhem match. EC3 shows up his geeky side and says that when he defends the title, he defends it in God-mode. A limping Matt Hardy shows up and says that #matt4champ will not stop because Matt Hardy will not die. Predictably, that meant a beat down from Tyrus and EC3.

#matt4champ huh? Yeah, right.

So they are continuing the Matt Hardy and EC3 feud? While I’m not really for it, I’m not really opposed to it too. Matt has never held the TNA Heavyweight Championship. He’s already 40 years old: the fourth oldest in the TNA active roster (from the oldest: Kurt Angle, Tyrus (!), and Abyss), so if he’s going to make a run for the belt, he has to do it now while he still can (as we had seen in last week’s main event).

The Wolves represents the TNA roster, while Brian Myers (the former Curt Hawkins) and Trevor Lee are representing GFW. The GFW guys are pretty good wrestlers: Brian Myers has the experience, while Trevor Lee has the strength (damn that deadlift into a bridging German Suplex to Eddie Edwards!) In the end, they were no match to an experienced tag team like the Wolves, with their well-coordinated attacks. An Eddie Edwards powerbomb-Davey Richards backstabber combo takes Trevor Lee out, and gives the Wolves the first win for the TNA roster!

That strength…! (Part 2)

All around, a good match. Trevor Lee shows promise, but he needs to work a little on his grooming (unless that caveman look is his gimmick), and he’s all set.

Tigre Uno vs Sonjay Dutt

I haven’t seen Sonjay Dutt’s TNA run so I’ll accept the Pope’s assertion that that his egotistical, arrogant attitude is new, because it’s somewhat validated when the audience, who were chanting his name in welcome at the start of the match, were silenced by his heel mannerisms during the match. An attempted Huracanrana from the top rope by Dutt was turned into a roll-up by Tigre Uno, giving Uno the second TNA roster win!

Too bad this was a short match, as I would have liked to see more of these two guys. I hope they will have a rematch in the next weeks or so.

Tigre Uno and Sonjay Dutt playing leapfrog

Backstage, Jeff Jarrett tries his Good Samaritan schmuck on EC3, but the champ no-sold the whole thing. EC3 says that while he may have fooled his aunt and everyone else, he will never fool him (to which I say, yay!). Not that it’s a revenge thing or something (because he’s a good guy okay?), Jarrett suddenly declares that whoever is the winner of the King of the Mountain match tonight will have a chance for the TNA Heavyweight Championship next week. It’s interesting to me that for someone who’s supposed to have the biggest clout in the roster, the champ EC3 keeps getting the short end of the stick every week.

We then see another brilliant promo from Mr. Anderson. He says that while the mic does not define him, it defines his 16 years of success in the business. He admits that Bram made him question if it’s time to go home and just be a dad. But he toughens up, and says that he will only quit when he says that it’s time to quit. Next week they will hang the mic on its usual place—on the rafters on top of the ramp, and they will fight for it. And he is damn sure he’s gonna win. The commentators are calling it the Open Mic Challenge. And no, it’s not a fight on who has the best rendition of “My Way,” but basically a ladder match with a mic involved.

Robbie E, P.J. Black, Chris Mordetzky, Eric Young, and Bobby Lashley for the King of the Mountain Championship

For those who are not familiar with the match, let me first explain the rules. We start with five challengers. To qualify, a competitor must pin his opponent, who will have to stay in the penalty box for two minutes. An official outside the ring holds the belt, and whoever’s qualified wins by successfully hanging the belt on a hook suspended in the middle of the ring (think of it as a reverse ladder match). Other qualified challengers can steal the belt and hang it themselves. If the title is dropped on the canvas for an extended period of time, the referee picks it up and gives it back to the official outside the ring.

Sounds simple, right? No? Yeah, I think it’s a convoluted match too.

All right, back to the tonight’s main event. Robbie E is Drew Galloway’s replacement for the King of the Mountain match. Despite the complicated rules, it was a very good, very exciting match. Everyone except Bobby Lashley was sent to the penalty box. The last quarter of the match has Young delivering a wicked piledriver on Robbie E on the steel steps, pinning the unconscious Robbie, and throwing him in the box. Chris Mordetzky soon follows Robbie to the land of the unconscious. The ladder and belt came into play, and the last three remaining challengers were either on the top of the ladder or on the top of the ropes. Young climbs on with the belt, Black with the springboard to the top rung of the ladder, and Lashley spears Young from the top rope! Black then hits a 450 Splash from the top of the ladder onto Lashley, grabs the belt, and hooks it, making P.J. Black the new King of the Mountain Champion! So that means we’ll see EC3 versus P.J. Black for the TNA Heavyweight Championship next week!

Insane jump!

Overall, this is a great show. It’s not the bombastic invasion that I was expecting (I confess I was expecting a tank to enter the building), but it was not bad at all. It was more of an infiltration than an outright invasion. All of tonight’s TNA-GFW matches were evenly booked. Too bad that some of them didn’t get much ring time. I look forward to seeing more these rivalries next week.

Did you see this week’s Impact Wrestling? What did you think of the episode? What do you think about the King of the Mountain main event? Did P.J. Black deserve to win the King of the Mountain Championship? How did you feel about the whole GFW invasion angle? Let us know in the comments!

Photos taken from ImpactWrestling.com

*****

Marie Ricana (@cris_ricana) is an IT specialist and a network/system administrator. While an engineer by profession, she dreams of becoming the next Roland Barthes or The Masked Man. One of these days, she’ll publish the most insightful book on pro wrestling in the Philippines. But for now, she is mostly writing reviews of TNA Impact Wrestling for Smark Henry.